Finding Your Motivation:Strategies and Secrets to Making New and Better Choices

Habits help us regulate our moods. So changing them could leave us without a way of feeling good. For example, when you “need” chocolate to “feel better” you don’t really want chocolate you want a dopamine release.

Dopamine is a chemical that makes you feel great, and chocolate helps your body to release it. That good feeling is the motivation behind your cravings. So the important thing to consider when you’re trying to lose weight is finding another way to get your dopamine fix, through exercise, sleep or interaction, you can satisfy the cravings without the calories.

Motivations is the driving force behind our bad habits, so dive into yours and form new, good habits. Identify what you want and how you can get it. You can shape new behaviours and with little practice they can become as routine as your bad habits were.

When we decide to make changes to our lifestyles, the problem is, is that we’re not specific enough. When we say “we want to lose weight” or “exercise more”. It’s important to have a goal, so when your goals are met, you know you’ve succeeded. So creating a measurable outcome makes your goal as specific as your craving.

If you set yourself a target of drinking fewer fizzy drinks or perhaps to visit the gym more, why don’t you spend some time recording how much or how little you’re performing, these can help you set a more realistic target. If you’re not exercising, then don’t go and exercise seven days a week. Turning a large goal into bite sized steps is the best approach for a bigger outcome.